Sunday, September 30, 2018

21.) I Should Care

Wooowhee has it been a long time since I posted an arrangment! Thanks for your patience. I felt like I had a good productive run on the project last winter. And then something happened called The Growing Season. April came and it was just time to get out there and plant, and then tend to those plantings, and then and then. I had a nice summer in the garden and at Common Ground Farm, where I worked part time for my second season.

This arrangement actually came in a spurt right in the middle of the season, back in July. I had had the hankering to compose some original music, but I felt like I needed to finish this project. So I went to work. I actually learned it too, but then August happened, some traveling, some day trips (epic swim holes!), and anyway, here we are. Purtnear October and I'm just finishing it. I'm not upset that it took this long. I've come to accept that my life is pretty broadly focused these days, and I know I can get this project done eventually.

The song here is I Should Care by Alex Stordahl, Paul Weston, and Sammy Cahn. I have three favorite recordings of this tune. Thelonious Monk did a solo version that was slow and rubato, from the album Thelonious Himself. I listened to it regularly back in college, and I decided to mimic his rubato feel. Another favorite is by the Bill Evans Trio on the album How My Heart Sings. I really love the phrasing in Bill's solo on that record. I can only hope that it had some impact on my improvisation here. I also love the early Sinatra recording - no surprise there!

Anyway, welcome back to 24 Standards. Things should get more regular now that it's Autumn. Thanks for listening. Onto the next one....